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Published: July 10th 2010
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PatPong St., Bangkok
The red light area of the city. Thailand - May 24th - June 18th, 2010 When we first flew to Bangkok from Kathmandu, we chose not to stay due to the political protests that were going on at the time. Now a month later, after a violent end to the Red Shirt demonstrations in which scores of people were killed, we were coming back. Although the worst was over, Bangkok was still under curfew and evidence of the violence was still littered around the government district. Nonetheless, the clean up was under way and things were getting back to normal and tourists were slowly trickling back in. After our 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap, we ended up on Kohsan Road, one of Bangkok’s touristy areas, and also the place where our Pad Thai addiction began.
Instead of seeing the sights of the city, we spent two days running around the city from embassies to immigration offices trying to extend our Thai visa’s and add pages to our passport. In the end, we accomplished nothing as you cannot add pages to a Canadian passport, and the visa extension cost $70 CAD for only seven days, which was pointless to get as we required more time.
So we really didn’t see all that much of Bangkok, but we really didn’t care as we were on a mission to get to the islands. We caught the night train to Surathani, from where a ferry took us to our first island of Koh Phangan. We were here for one reason, and that was to celebrate my 29th birthday which happened to fall on the night of the infamous Full Moon Party. The Full Moon party attracts thousands of visitors each month and surely does not disappoint. The nights leading up to the full moon are filled with pool, foam and bucket parties. Anything goes that night, including fire limbo, crazy outfits, body paint and even sex in the bushes! We partied late in the morning for a few nights straight, after which we could party no more. We joined the mass exodus of people leaving from Koh Phangan and caught the ferry to Koh Tao for some diving and much needed recuperation.
We had heard so much about this tiny island in the gulf of Thailand, and it was great to finally get here and see it for ourselves. Koh Tao is all about diving, and there
Paradise Found!
Koh Nangyuan, about a 10 min. boat ride from Koh Tao must be hundreds of dive shops on an island which is only a few kilometres long. It was our first time diving since Egypt, and we got hooked up with a great deal through a friend which we met in Egypt. We dived two days, both from a boat, which caused a few problems with sea sickness for Andrea. Maybe our expectations were too high, or maybe the Red Sea is just better, but we were not all that impressed with the diving here. It was still fun to be in the water, but the variety of coral and marine life was nowhere near what we had seen in the Sinai. And we still didn’t find the beautiful beaches that Thailand is famous for.
As our visas were running out, we had to leave Koh Tao and do the visa run to Burma. The whole process is a complete waste of time, but it is the easiest and cheapest way to extend a Thai visa, so we really had no choice. We chose not to return to Koh Tao, but rather continue on to Phuket. This was supposed to take only a few hours but much to our annoyance,
Lily the elephant.
Only 2 years old and already over 800 pounds! ended up taking the rest of the day. So we arrived in Phuket at 1am, and were lucky to find a place to stay for the night, as most guesthouses were locked up for the night. Next day was onward to Patong Beach, where we would stay for the next 4 days. Phuket was a great time for us as it has nice beaches, lots of good food and plenty of weird nightlife. We rented scooters and rode around the whole island in search of one thing... baby elephants! It wasn’t long until we found them. First was Lily, a massive toddler at about 2 years and later Valentine, who at 3 months was about the cutest thing we had ever seen. We got to feed them and even got sloppy kisses from one, another first on this trip. Yet another interesting first on this trip was all the ladyboys in Phuket. Men dressed as women, who look so much like women that it’s hard to tell the difference (from far away). Needless to say the sex tourism industry is alive and well here in Phuket. But still no amazing beaches.
In our ongoing search for the picture perfect
Bamboo Island
Remote little island of the coast of Koh Phi Phi. beach, we again boarded a ferry and headed to Koh Phi Phi, which we heard has the nicest beaches in Thailand. It was here that we found paradise. Phi Phi Don island itself was nice, but the real treasure was discovered on a day cruise to some of the smaller surrounding islands. They are remote and isolated, reachable only by boat, but the islands around Phi Phi Don are where the postcard pictures of Thailand are taken. White sands, turquoise waters and tall palm trees make for some spectacular scenery, and amazing photos, which we took plenty of. Unfortunately being so remote, it would get expensive to come here every day. Phi Phi Don itself is nice as well, but the one thing we found about all the islands we had visited so far was that they were basically all the same. They’re all full of hotels, restaurants, dive shops, travel agents and drunk English tourists with permanently attached buckets. Worst of all there really is no Thai culture on the islands as everything is catered to the western tourist.
This is perhaps why we liked Krabi the best. We arrived from Koh Phi Phi and right away the
place felt different. It’s on the mainland, so it’s a bit cheaper, and unquestionably more laid back then the islands. No one bothered us here, there were less people and the beaches were just as nice as Phi Phi. We settled at Railay Beach, a short boat ride from Ao Nang town, and spent the next 3 nights in a fancy resort the likes of which we had not seen since we splurged for Andrea’s birthday back in March. We had our own bungalow (made of concrete) and even a pool, which was pure luxury for only 500 TBH per night. Railay is surrounded by sheer cliffs that rise right out of the water, which makes for amazing scenery and also makes it a big destination for rock climbers. Given that we were in relax mode, we didn’t climb any cliffs... we were even too lazy to climb to the view point.
After chilling in Krabi for a few days it was time to end our little tour of Thailand. Our next destination was Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with a one night stopover in Hat Yai to break up the 22 hour trip. Thailand was a fun place, but
we are glad to have done it during low season. The islands are all about drinking, partying and catering to tourists, and it reflects in the local’s attitude towards gringo’s. We have seen what tourism does to the locals far too many times on this trip and we definitely enjoy the places where tourists are scarce and the locals are friendly. We are both glad we had a chance to see Thailand now, we can only imagine what a few more years will do to the islands.
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